I've been watching the Rocket building for awhile, and, funnily enough, it seems like it's taken forever to get to this point. They're going to build an arcade over the sidewalk, and apparently will receive LEED Platinum in the end. Sounds like they've been to hell and back for all the permits.

The future of the aging Burlingame Fred Meyer store will be discussed at the Wednesday meeting of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at St. Barnabas Church, 2201 S.W. Vermont St.

Store officials have suggested they are considering extensively remodeling or even replacing the store, 7555 S.W. Barbur Blvd. It opened in 1950 and lacks many of the amenities of the company’s newer stores, like large clothing and deli sections.

Does anyone know what in the hell is going on with the Backbridge Station condos on the two corners at Williams and Fremont? I thought they'd be nearing completion by now. Instead, there's just... nothing. I wrote to the developer and got no response. The Terroir restaurant going in to the Fremont/MLK LRS-designed piece-of-shit building *originally* was going in on the ground floor of Backbridge but pulled out due to "delays". Softening market at work?

tworivers - I really agree with you. These are all great projects - you can see the one I like (above). This is exciting stuff, and I'm sure it will only get better the next 10+ years! Here's how to grow our own local architects...

tworivers, with the Backbridge Station, I hope they are going forward with it too. Kaiser has a website under construction for it (www.backbridgestation.com) so i'm taking that as a good sign.

I found a new one that's proposed for 47th and Hawthorne called 'The Tabor' designed by Vallaster and Corl. They describe it as "a contemporary mixed-use building located on SE Hawthorne street and 47th. The ground floor consists of approximately 6700 square feet of dedicated retail space, 18 townhomes located above, and parking to the rear. The building maintains a three story height that is in context with the scale of existing buildings along Hawthorne Boulevard."

^ This is the same developer as the Hawthorne Condos on 34th. I asked him if he had any doubts about building this project directly in the center of bar central on Hawthorne, he replied asking me how long those bars have been there and how easy it would be to push them out... I lost all my respect for this developer at that moment.

I never understood that kind of thinking. I remember when neighbors regularly fought businesses locating on NW 23rd. If you don't want to be in an area with lots of action there are lots of opportunities to live a few blocks (or miles) away from it.

The Bermuda Triangle of Portland city planning, a vortex that figuratively swallowed planners, maps and residents a decade ago, is re-emerging as jobs, population and transportation create new pressures.

The vortex is Southwest Barbur Boulevard and a parcel near Barbur and Southwest Capitol Highway, identified by Metro in 1995 as a West Portland town center.

After years of controversy about increased density, and without consensus about its future, city planners and the City Council in 2000 simply left the Barbur corridor out of the much-debated Southwest Community Plan.

But now TriMet's general manager, Fred Hansen, has hinted about Barbur becoming a light-rail route, and some Southwest residents see a need to rethink everything from land-use patterns to sidewalks along the designated state highway.

Robert Liberty, a Metro councilor whose district includes Barbur, says he'd like to see it undergo a "gradual transformation as an enhanced location for housing, shopping and services." At the same time, he adds, "It's still going to carry a lot of traffic."

In the 1990s, residents near the corridor stood firm against increasing residential densities, partly in fear that newcomers would arrive, but without adequate roads and public facilities to serve them.

"There are a huge number of land-use and transportation issues wrapped up in that," says John Gibbon, chairman of the Southwest Neighborhood Coalition's planning committee. "High density without infrastructure to support it is just scary."

Liberty thinks Portland's recent condo-building splurge reflects a shift in attitude about density. Urban density is considered a plus in areas such as the burgeoning Pearl District and the South Waterfront tower village.

"The market is changing nationally and in the region," Liberty says. "We are seeing things we wouldn't have believed 10 years ago."

In Portland, 20-story buildings are now considered "mid-rises" instead of high-rises. Four- and five-story condo and apartment buildings blossoming in Gresham, Milwaukie and Beaverton could be harbingers for the West Portland district.

As part of its 2040 plan adopted in 1995, Metro identified 25 potential town centers, including this one in West Portland. In concept, town centers provide a variety of housing options, shopping, jobs and transit links to other regional centers.

Current numbers suggest the plan's population target will be reached by 2022, which Liberty takes as a sign that the region should implement the plan more quickly.

A West Portland town center, he acknowledges, "is a challenge," given its quirky street system and the attitudes expressed a decade ago.

So far, associations of two of the six neighborhoods around the town center area, Crestwood and West Portland Park, say they're willing to talk about the idea again. As Gibbon puts it, "If they want to send us a bucket of money to get Barbur Boulevard planned, hey, great."

No public agencies have stepped forward to tackle Barbur Boulevard. Despite Hansen's mention of light rail, TriMet has not begun studies.

Liberty says local investment and neighborhood enthusiasm make a difference on where Metro chooses to spend its limited dollars.

"If there is a lot of controversy instead of a unity of vision and purpose," he says, "it's harder to say that's where we should put our time and money."

Not your average condo boxTRIB TOWN:Cottage-style project in St. Johns already has a waiting list
By Anna Johns

Larry Cowlishaw has been building and remodeling homes in the Portland metro area for more than 20 years.

“I built my first home while I was in high school,” he says.

Last year, Cowlishaw purchased a 100-by-100-foot empty lot in the Cathedral Park neighborhood of St. Johns. He set to work to develop the site in the usual way – meeting with his architect, engineers and neighbors. When his plans for an eight-unit town home complex were approved by the city, something unusual happened.

“Everybody wants to buy one of these homes,” he says.

Cowlishaw was astonished that dozens of people filled out paperwork to get on a waiting list for the eight units even before he broke ground in September. Now that the foundation is poured and walls are going up, the waiting list stands at 62 people.

“This kind of interest is really unprecedented,” says Jim Hodges, a St. Johns-area real estate agent for 18 years.

Hodges says he is seeing younger, more affluent homeowners move into an area that has traditionally been, he says, “blue collar.” He attributes the interest from buyers to the growing downtown St. Johns business district.

“It’s a combination of affordability and because it is an up-and-coming area,” Hodges says. “I think, before long, it’ll look like the Hawthorne area.”
Project is one of several

The Cathedral Park Village Townhomes, as Cowlishaw has named them, will stand four stories high in the middle of a bluff above the Willamette River at North Edison Street and Charleston Avenue. Each unit will have a view of the river and the historic St. Johns Bridge, which towers over the entire neighborhood.

The Cathedral Park neighborhood, named for the park that sits under the bridge, has seen a construction boom in recent years. From the top of the bluff to the river’s edge, there are four high-density residential projects under construction, with at least one more set to begin in the spring.

“The project that Larry is doing definitely appears to have hit a sweet spot in the market,” says Erik Palmer, neighborhood land-use chairman. “I think the reason is because he is putting a little bit extra into the quality of design and construction of his project.”

Each 2,000-square-foot unit will have large windows on the front, and each unit is designed slightly different from the neighboring one. Cowlishaw is most excited about the elevators that will go from the garage level to the top, master suite.
Zoning change spurs development

The reason for the sudden interest by developers in the neighborhood, according to Palmer, is a change in zoning. Up until two years ago, land surrounding Cathedral Park and bordering the river was zoned only for industrial use. Getting a zoning change, Palmer says, was too much of a hassle for developers to give it much attention. Then, when the St. Johns area concluded a multineighborhood master plan two years ago, things began to change.

Along with that master plan came zoning changes from the city that allow the industrial and empty lots in the neighborhood to be developed as live-work or solely residential sites. The goal of the neighborhood is to encourage a moderate increase in overall neighborhood density.

“What we’ve learned is a change in zoning doesn’t guarantee the kinds of projects we would like to see in the neighborhood,” Palmer says.

Palmer says most of the high-density housing projects in Cathedral Park have been focused on quantity rather than quality.

“By and large we’re getting the density, but we haven’t gotten the quality of design and construction that we aspired to when we participated in the planning process,” he says.

Cowlishaw’s cottage-style project, Palmer says, is an exception.

Design is what sealed the deal for Chris Rozell, a single mother who is at the top of the waiting list for one of Cowlishaw’s town homes. Rozell already has sold her Arbor Lodge home and she and her 14-year-old daughter are living with various friends until construction is complete, tentatively April 1.

“My daughter basically gets her own floor,” Rozell says. “Plus, a kid and an elevator? You can’t go wrong.”

Members of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association have asked the Portland Planning Bureau to prepare a master plan for the Hillsdale Triangle, an underdeveloped parcel bounded by Southwest 18th Avenue, Capitol Highway and Sunset Boulevard.

The request is prompted by triangle resident Lance Johnson’s plan to replace his house with 10 new homes.

Although the entire triangle is zoned for more homes, the association believes all of it should be redeveloped together – or at least in complementary stages. No other triangle property owners have proposed building any new homes yet.

Planning officials have yet to respond to the request.

A city hearings officer considered the case last month. One issue that arose was how Johnson planned to connect the new homes to the city sewer system.

Because much of the property lies below street level, he must either propose a pumping system or convince the city to reinstall the existing pipes at a lower level. Johnson has not yet submitted his proposed solution to the city.http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/...29764907958800

Thanks for lthe article Mark. I love that this guy has a list of 62 possible buyers. Also his prices are fair considering Pre-fab 4 story condos (the fulgy fake rowhouse look) in Happy Valley go for nearly 400,000. Hopefully this is a lesson to other developers and shows them that if projects are done right and with quality there well always be a market for your project.